LG shelves future tablet efforts

LG has ceded the tablet arena to Apple. Effectively chucking in the towel, it has put the development of future tablets "on the back burner".

So says a company spokesman, Bloomberg reports after probing the South Korean giant for its response to Microsoft's Surface launch.

The LG minion said: "We've decided to put all new tablet development on the back burner for the time being in order to focus on smartphones."

Not even LG's bigger arch-rival, Samsung, has managed to significantly dent Apple's lead in tablets. Quite apart from Surface, LG also has to consider competing with Google's upcoming own-brand tablet, the Asus-made Nexus 7, which expected to be announced later this month.

LG barely troubles the scorer in the tablet market, so no wonder it wants out. But it does have a top-five placing in the world smartphone business, according to most market watchers. ®